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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

I think the two top CEO's at this time are Jeff Bezos and Reed Hastings. Both jumped in to fill a need and then boldly pivoted into new areas. Amazon went from online bookstore, to online everything store to cloud provider. Netflix went from mail order DVD to online streaming to content producer. This is somewhat reminiscent of Bill Gates and the transition of Microsoft from Basic to DOS to Windows to Office.

This illustrates just how much a Founder CEO who has the right mix of smarts and boldness can be absolutely vital for a company. I cannot imagine a generic MBA CEO doing such bold and aggressive moves with Netflix, that the founder CEO has been able to do.

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You say "to x", but e.g. Amazon is still doing all of the above - Amazon also owns imdb, audible, zappos, goodreads, twitch, Curse, Whole Foods, over 70 own brand products [0], Cloud9, pets.com, and probably a heap more. They didn't pivot, they expanded. Likewise, Netflix still does DVDs too.

[0] https://www.recode.net/2018/4/7/17208804/amazon-private-labe...

Netflix only does DVDs in the USA now. They have withdrawn in other markets in favour of streaming-only.

They have about 4 million DVD customers versus 115 million streaming.

> Netflix only does DVDs in the USA now. They have withdrawn in other markets in favour of streaming-only.

This may be partly due to the USA's unique combination of a well functioning postal service, large population, and lack of broadband penetration in rural areas.

If you venture out to Alaska, the Dakotas, West Viriginia etc there's tons of places where there's a post office but no or shitty broadband.

Being able to drive into town and pick up a stack of blu-rays at your PO box, and send back the old is extremely useful in such areas.

Isn't "generic MBA" vs "founder" a false dichotomy?

If you want a company that really pivoted, Nokia is a better example[1], yet many of those changes only happened long after its founders were dead.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nokia

It usually is not, most MBAs have any creativity or original thought beaten out of them at business school.

It’s usually gone long before then!

Another company that really pivoted is Nintendo. The company is almost 130 years old and went from playing cards, to toys, to videogames. Though it can be argued that they expanded considering that they also produce playing cards and toys for their franchise characters.

A comment I read about Amazon, and which I'd never really thought about before, noted how books were actually the perfect entry point for Amazon becoming Amazon.

The existing model was open to disruption, but more importantly the intrinsic attributes of a book itself made it perfect.

Huge market, non-perishable, substitutable, easily shipped, similarly sized, with an incredibly long tail of varieties

How many other goods fit those criteria?

Coincidentally, in most ways DVDs fit your requirements.

I do feel the advisers deserve a bit of credit, as well. I dont think that any good CEO would make such a bold decision on his own.

I'm pretty sure I heard Reed Hastings say it was one of his advisers that had to convince him that producing original content was the way to go.

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